As Paris Attacks Unfolded, Players and Fans at Soccer Stadium Remained Unaware

Fans at Stade de France on Friday, when scores of people were killed in terrorist attacks in Paris. For the players and most of the fans, the events’ gravity was not clear until after the game.Credit
Christophe Ena/Associated Press

PARIS — Shortly after 9:45 p.m. Friday, at halftime of an exhibition soccer match between France and Germany, the players on both teams went to their locker rooms to rest while the coaches, who normally would have been reviewing their strategies, instead received shocking news.

Everyone had heard the two explosions outside the stadium during the first half of the game, and Didier Deschamps, who leads the French team, and Joachim Löw, Germany’s manager, were told by French officials that there was a developing crisis, with violence reported near the stadium as well as around the city. President François Hollande, who had been at the match, had already been rushed from the stadium, they were told, but the second half would proceed.

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The coaches then had a choice to make: Should they inform the players of the situation or not?

Both coaches kept the information to themselves. Mr. Deschamps seriously considered telling the French players, according to a high-ranking official with the French soccer federation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, but ultimately decided against it because, at that time, the extent of the violence was unknown. Mr. Löw did the same.

The coaches’ decisions, along with typically spotty cellphone reception during major events at the cavernous Stade de France just north of Paris, made for a surreal atmosphere: The players played and most of the fans cheered as usual, unaware of what was going on around them, while a smattering of coaches, officials and journalists (all of whom had access to the Internet) grimly followed the escalating carnage of the coordinated terrorist attacks that killed at least 129 people and injured scores more.

“It was so weird,” said Cyril Olivès-Berthet, who was covering the match for the French sports newspaper L’Équipe. “The players were running and doing their game, and the fans were chanting their normal chants, ‘Aux Armes, Aux Armes,’ a typical chant that is a warrior thing about taking arms and going to war. When France scored the second goal late in the game, they all waved their flags, and the players celebrated like they always do.”

As soon as the match ended, however — around 10:50 p.m. — the gravity of the events quickly became clear. Several German players stopped in the tunnel leading to the locker rooms, rooted in front of televisions that were showing news updates. In the French locker room, Thierry Braillard, France’s secretary of state for sport, gave an impromptu address to the players, informing them of the tragedy unfolding, an official who was present said.

Fans at the match were initially directed to just two exits from the stadium, creating a bottleneck. Andreas Berten, a reporter for Funke Mediengruppe, a newspaper and magazine publishing house, said he and other journalists were waiting for an elevator to go down to the locker room area when “suddenly hundreds of fans came running back through the gates toward the field.”

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The surge of people was terrifying, Mr. Berten said, because it seemed as though they were running in fear. “We thought perhaps there were attackers coming into the stadium with guns,” he said. It turned out, he said, that police had changed the protocol for that area, and many fans, unsure of what to do, went to the field, where they milled around.

Typical postgame protocols for the teams were canceled. There were no news conferences or interviews, and the players changed quietly into street clothes and then waited for further instructions. The police informed both teams that it was impossible to guarantee the safety of the team buses, so the players and coaches stayed on the lower level of the stadium, most of them sitting sullenly in front of televisions. Wives and children of some players were allowed into a room nearby to wait as well.

“We are all in shock,” Mr. Löw told the German television station ARD. “All of us on the bench were a bit scared.”

Shortly before 3 a.m., the French team was taken by bus to its training center about 40 miles southwest of Paris. The German delegation was instructed that it would be a security risk to take its team bus out of the Stade de France — there was concern it would be a target because the vehicle had identification on it showing it was carrying the German players — so it was not until nearly 7 a.m. that the team left the stadium in a fleet of minivans that took the group to the airport. The team arrived in Frankfurt around 10 a.m., several of the players said in Twitter posts.

The attacks promised to disrupt sports around Europe for at least a few days. All sporting events in and around Paris were postponed (all cultural institutions were closed as well). The Trophée Éric Bompard, a top figure skating event being held in Bordeaux, about 350 miles southwest of Paris, was canceled because of the state of emergency. There were initial reports that the French soccer team would cancel its next exhibition match, against England on Tuesday in London, but after much discussion the French federation decided to play the game as scheduled.

European soccer’s governing body, known as UEFA, issued a statement in support of France that said there would be a moment of silence before all other European matches played in the coming days, including the qualifying matches for the European Championship, and that players would wear black armbands.

The attacks also raised concerns about the European Championship next summer in France. The tournament is scheduled to be played in 10 cities across the country from June 10 to July 10, and worries about security — already heightened following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January — will only increase.

A version of this article appears in print on November 15, 2015, on Page SP9 of the New York edition with the headline: As Carnage Unfolded Outside Stadium in France, Many Inside Were Unaware . Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe